It was a white sky night. I remember because I was in DeRon’s bed. His bed’s under the window and I was staring at the sky. DeRon said the streetlights make the sky white and I ain’t never gonna see no star. But I was tryin’ anyway. I want to be an astronaut when I grow up, but I never seen a real, live star out my window.

The couch creaked when daddy got up to get his phone. I listened, but daddy didn’t say nothin’. Then I heard his boots walkin’ to my room. I pulled the covers over my eyes and pretended I was sleeping. But he just turned on the lights.

“We gotta go the hospital,” daddy said. “Your brother’s…hurt.”

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